Field
The present disclosure relates to communication networks. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a system and a method for efficiently facilitating hot-swappable switch fabric cards in a switch.
Related Art
The exponential growth of the Internet has made it a popular delivery medium for a variety of applications running on physical and virtual devices. Such applications have brought with them an increasing demand for bandwidth. As a result, equipment vendors race to build larger and faster switches with versatile capabilities, such as efficient management of switch cards. However, the capabilities of a switch cannot grow infinitely. It is limited by physical space, power consumption, and design complexity, to name a few factors. Furthermore, switches with higher capability are usually more complex and expensive. As a result, increasing efficiency in existing capabilities of a switch adds significant value proposition.
To meet with increasing traffic demand, an operational switch can support hot-swappable switch cards, such as line cards and switch fabric cards (SFCs). A hot-swappable card can be added or removed while the switch remains active. A line card can include one or more ports (or interfaces) that allow links to connect to the switch. A switch fabric card facilitates a switch fabric of the switch, which allows internal switching within the switch (i.e., switching of packets within the switch, such as between line cards). Adding a new switch fabric card can expand the internal switching capability of the switch through its switch fabric. On the other hand, if a switch fabric card fails, that switch fabric card can be taken out of the switch. In either case, the switch configures its overall switch fabric to determine how the internal switching of the switch should operate.
While the use of hot-swappable cards brings many desirable features in an active switch, some issues remain unsolved in facilitating efficient hot-swappable switch fabric cards.